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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23377108">Being there for Data (and Picard) as needed</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TFALokiwriter/pseuds/TFALokiwriter'>TFALokiwriter</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Trek: Picard</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Afterlife, Canon Compliant, Episode: s01e10 Et in Arcadia Ego Part 2, M/M, Speculation, also non canon compliant, righting wrongs, technically</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 14:02:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,918</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23377108</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TFALokiwriter/pseuds/TFALokiwriter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Being there when necessary is crucial.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Data &amp; Jean-Luc Picard, Jean-Luc Picard/Q</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Before; Picard</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Picard found himself in a bright white space as he had so long ago. He stared looking around the area. It was identical to how he had last remembered it coming through the area for his initial death experience. His brush with death that lead him down a path of enjoying it a little more and laughing a little more than often as needed. Picard walked forward through the area of the whiteness spotting a figure ahead of him. Was it God?</p><p>A hand was outstretched for him as he came closer then he took it and he was yanked forward.</p><p>“Hello, Jean-Luc.” Q greeted him, somberly. “You’re dead.”</p><p>Picard was surprised at first to find that the entity had aged as he had; his goatee had grayed and his youthful features had been replaced by age. It felt wrong and unusual to see him this way instead of how he had remembered him.</p><p>“The afterlife can’t be this bad.”</p><p>“Oh, you wound me, mon amiral!” Q put a hand on his chest and swooned. “Is that what you say to someone you love?”</p><p>“Yes, I do.” Picard said then admitted. “I was expecting to see other familiar faces.”</p><p>“Ah, that is a problem for you.”</p><p>“How so?”</p><p>“You’re mine.”</p><p>“You don’t own me.”</p><p>“I have taken the liberty of binding you to me so that is a problem. Just to stop you from falling out of my reach. You’re a small fish and a stubborn small fish at that. Do you know how difficult it was to catch you? Very." Q put his hands on his hips as he glared down the former admiral. "I have a leash on you to stop that from happening.”</p><p>“Like a pet.” Picard noted, amused.</p><p>“My little pet that is going to spend eternity with me.” Q  said, proudly. </p><p>"So that is what you are going to tell your colleagues."</p><p>"Because that's the truth in the Q continuum." Q said. "Besides, they don't believe in the thing that you do. Love." Q slightly tilted his head then folded his arms and straightened his head up quite puzzled by the reaction of the older man that was concerning. "Why are you looking at me that way, Picard?” </p><p>“Why do you look so old?” Picard asked. </p><p>“To mock you." Q replied, simply, at first. "You allowed yourself to get old, to be bogged down by arthritis problems, not to fight for your youth when you had the chance with the new things that are out there. You made yourself weaker and distasteful. I thought you would keep back those features of aging while I kept track of your species development. Banning synthetic lifeforms? That is like the gay panic, the Muslim panic, the Asian panic, all for hate. I thought those distressing hates were nothing until Thaddeus died all for <em>nothing</em>.”</p><p>“The F-8 <em>did</em> destroy a entire planet after being reprogrammed, Q.” Picard reminded the entity. “They had all the reason to fear them, however, those specific groups had done nothing wrong and were only being seen as threats because of communism, child molesters, and terrorists. And aging is a wonderful part of being human, Q.”</p><p>“And?”</p><p>“I don’t like it on you.”</p><p>“Me neither.”</p><p>“Then make yourself into who you are.”</p><p>“You first.”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“Picard, I am not changing my appearance until <em>you </em>do.”</p><p>“I can’t do that.”</p><p>“Yes, you can. All souls can do that in the transition period as they shake off those feelings.”</p><p>Q shook his hand.</p><p>“The first step to moving on, Picard, and looking young again is dropping all those feelings you have left of the life you had before.” Q came nose to nose with the older man. “I can’t do that with a snap of my fingers, you have to do it yourself.”</p><p>Q pointed into the man’s chest then stepped back, snapped his fingers, and linked his hands behind his back as Picard thought it over.</p><p>"Hmm. . ." Picard said. "That is a interesting fact."</p><p>“Like the uniform?” Q twirled on his heels displaying the 2399  captain’s uniform. “I picked it out for this occasion.”</p><p>Q grinned as he let go of the uniform, </p><p>“I have been awaiting to parade around you in this but given that you resigned and all as protest. . .” Q snapped his fingers then was back in his white robes and shrugged off the issue.</p><p>“How about Hugh and Icheb? Can you bring them back?”</p><p>“Picard, you <em>are</em> senile!” Q was horrified. “If I brought Hugh back---”</p><p>“Can you?” Picard asked.</p><p>“I can.” Q said. “I don’t know how Hugh would be able to accept being bound on one planet with synthetics.”</p><p>“Just bring them back for me.” Picard said. “That is all I ask.”</p><p>“Ooooh. I see.” Q nodded in realization. “<em>That</em> is your unfinished business. The unjust wrong that needs to be corrected. That's why you haven't moved on quickly."</p><p>“It is.” Picard confirmed. </p><p>“I will do it for you.” Q said. </p><p>“But, I need certain freedoms.” Picard said. </p><p>Q studied the former admiral.</p><p>“Visiting wherever you like, having powers of your own, being a Q?”</p><p>“Yes, and no.”</p><p>“You don’t trust yourself with the power of a Q.”</p><p>“I do not at this time.”</p><p>“Being able to go wherever you like, is that it?”</p><p>“It is.”</p><p>“If you like to take short cuts, you can always hitch a ride with me.”</p><p>“I appreciate that thought, Q.” Picard said. “Now, please stop stalling. Bring them back and send them to Coppelius.”</p><p>“What if I brought Thaddeus back? He was fifteen, Picard. What if I gave him five more years on the home world with his family and. . “</p><p>“No, send him to Coppelius and give him a positronic brain.”</p><p>“Picard. No.”</p><p>“Q. Yes.”</p><p>“I don’t like this.”</p><p>“Q, we were always on the other side of the issue. But now, being on this part, we have different views. A soul is a soul. A brain is a brain even if it is positronic.”</p><p>“Picard, you have shown me to be human is to have a time limit. A limit that makes people enjoy life more and love being alive because they make the best of it. Now, that we are talking about it, twenty is too young. I won’t bring that beta-human back just to die. He had his time.”</p><p>“I <em>had</em> my time.” Picard reminded. “He <em>didn't</em>, Q.”</p><p>Q frowned.</p><p>“You’re compelling me to play God and I don’t want to.” Q said. “We have a Q Prime Directive about this sort of thing. Things can get messy.”</p><p>“I have faith that they can clean up the mess and dust themselves off at the end of the day.” Picard said. “Didn’t you make those kinds of offers on a daily basis?”</p><p>“I was playing with you, Picard.” Q replied as he walked around the older man as he narrowed his eyes toward the man.  “Next you are going to ask me to bring back the population of Mars!"</p><p>"No. Just stop the explosions and that is it." Picard said. "They are dead." Picard shook his head. "It would take another hundreds of years to terraform it again."</p><p>"But a challenge that humans can jump to." Q said.</p><p>"Precisely." Picard said. "However, if you can. . . Can you allow the survivors to speak with the dead? To say one last and proper good-bye. The day after the attack would do."</p><p>"That is the smallest thing you have ever asked for," Q said. "I can do that all in one snap. Time to make it so!"</p><p>Q snapped his fingers with a smile then Picard relaxed and smiled.</p><p>"Also as a plus, I have sent Narek to the brig aboard Number Two's craft and hired a lawyer for your friend who was manipulated." Q said.</p><p>"Not bad."</p><p>"And relocated all of the fleet ships that were under construction on Mars and recently completed starships on another planet a couple thousand light years away from the Alpha Quadrant with children."</p><p>"Q!"</p><p>"Kidding, I only moved the children, the construction workers and the starfleet officers stationed on Mars inside the ships."</p><p>Picard sighed, annoyed, then pinched the bridge of his nose.</p><p>"Q, put them <em>all</em> back."</p><p>"No."</p><p>"You're meddling in the attack."</p><p>"Everyone thinks they are dead, Picard. Let them think that." Picard's eyes flashed open at first then they returned to their normal size and proceeded to smile. "I moved several of the F line that weren't hacked in to the ships and regulated them as back up engineers. It's a long journey back to the Alpha Quadrant, Picard. It will take twenty-two years just to reach federation space from where I left them in space."</p><p>"How many survivors are there?"</p><p>"A couple million."</p><p>"Millions of starships?" Picard blinked in disbelief at the math. "I wasn't aware they had that many under construction."</p><p>"I may have sped up the construction in order to get the children, select family members, and construction workers to make it off. . " Q admitted. "And turned several museums into starships."</p><p>"Q, put them back." Picard glared at the entity.</p><p>"Too late, Picard." Q held his hand up in a halt gesture then shook it. "They are already in the Delta Quadrant making friends and heading for Earth with envoys." he held his hand up in mid-air then closed it. "Voyager made a lot of friends, Picard. Friends who are willing to work together to make sure they help people like them get home."</p><p>Picard looked back at the memory that crossed his mind from the lengthy report that circulated across the admirals on each anniversary of the Voyager's return until he resigned.</p><p>"And a certain Cube is going to cross them and find out what happened in the final year then make sure they get home." Q continued. "I may have also turned parks, farms, and natural reserves into ships to support them."</p><p>"You are being very generous." Picard noted. "Why?"</p><p>"Because you were broke up about it," Q replied.</p><p>"What else did you do?" Picard asked.</p><p>"I did only as you had asked." Q explained. "What is done is done.  Your exact words."</p><p>"Show me."</p><p>Q gestured a hand then a large screen appeared and they watched as Thaddeus was reunited with Deanna and Riker in a big bear hug in front of the house in tears, Narek sulked in a ship with a new captain staring into the newly occupied cell,  Hugh continuing where he had left off regarding helping the Xbs aboard the cube helping them change from organic machines to mere traumatized people trying to get themselves back together, a large fleet of ships flying toward the Alpha Quadrant with burn scars and lights flickering on and off, Agnes in court with her lawyer, Icheb helping the cube ship be taken apart, and family members sobbing over a livestream watching the ones they love not make it.</p><p>"Are you happy now, Jean-Luc?"</p><p>Picard was quiet as he closed his eyes then relaxed.</p><p>"One more thing. . ."</p><p>"What would you like?"</p><p>"I want you to displace all the Romulan ships in the radius of the supernova. They need all the survivors they can get."</p><p>"And is that it?"</p><p>"Yes."</p><p>Q snapped his fingers then looked toward the former admiral in surprise as he watched his friend smile with his eyes closed, widely, then open his eyes appearing to be happy. After opening his eyes, Picard looked younger and unharmed by time itself even in better condition. Gone were his white shirt and dark gray-green pants replaced by the one thing that was true to himself and what his values were. Back was a warm and familiar piece of himself that felt like his skin -- but was not -- in the form of a Starfleet uniform. Picard faced the entity then found Q appearing to be younger as well.</p><p>"Welcome back, Starfleet." Q held his hand out for Picard. "Like to explore the whole universe and get to enjoy it's worlds and phenomenons for a eternity? Going where no one, no creature, nothing has gone before?"</p><p>Picard took Q's hand and smiled, happily, beaming before Q.</p><p>"Let's engage on this mission before I change my mind." Picard said.</p><p>Q raised his other hand up with a grin. </p><p>"Course set, mon capitaine."</p><p>Then in a white flash, they were gone.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>For those rereading; YES. I realized I made a error and that the Beta Quadrant travel time doesn't take long compared to the Delta Quadrant back to the Alpha Quadrant. My bad. Hope you still enjoy it ^.^</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. After; Data</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Data listened to the song blue skies, lowering the glass, bobbing his head along to the music. It was gentle with its melody. A few moments of enjoying life for the fullest.  And he waited for the synthesized human to do as he had requested. He set the pillow up along the arm rest of the chair, slid the blanket forward, then relaxed. And he was scared of the end being alone. Completely alone. His hands were trembling on the blanket that he struggled to control as if he had no power over them at all.</p><p>“Don’t be afraid, Commander Data. I am here.”</p><p>Data’s head turned toward the source of the familiar voice, stunned, confused, as the familiar figure in the old Starfleet black and bright red uniform from his youth reached a hand out. <em>Captain?</em> The entity took Data’s hand then put it on to his knee. And he looked young as Data recalled in the seventh year being under his command.  </p><p>“I came soon as I heard that you were dying.” </p><p>Data turned his attention off from what was the distinctive soul of his former captain. <em>Fascinating</em>, Data noted. His captain’s soul had passed on but his consciousness had been copied and stored into the same place as he was. A soul that had jumped through space and time to be there for <em>him</em>. </p><p>“And I am not leaving you to die alone.” </p><p>His mind jumped back to a discussion that had been held roughly a decade ago and more regarding the then-captain’s second experience with death. As the entity had promised, Picard was whisked away to a Eternity by his side upon death. It was strange not to spot the entity around him. But, it was easier to explain to himself that the man had been given certain freedoms of his own. Or turned into a Q. </p><p>“This time, I will part ways with words.”</p><p>Data wasn’t quite sure without the proper instruments but he was certain, this was real. This was the real. This person in the elaborate and sophisticated simulation was a entity. He clenched the entity’s hand while his body became relaxed on the couch that he had became forced to be familiar to with the last twenty years. </p><p>He felt age creep up upon him then Data smiled and so did the Entity. The final completion of the human experience being guided to by his programming, his friends -- who were in every sense of the word; his family --, and the choices that he had made into this position. To feel his bones ache was a new experience, to feel his body going numb was different, wholesome, feeling as he was slowly creeping away from the simulation falling into the dark. His grip on the entity’s hand went loose.</p><p>It was only saddening that Geordi wasn’t here to share this experience with him as his black hair turned to gray. </p><p>His best friend, his Watson, the person that he loved the most among his family.</p><p>“Good-bye, Data.”</p><p>Then Data was gone.</p><p>Picard set Data’s hand along his side then withdrew his hand into his lap. The entity sighed as the program began to fall apart around him. Picard lingered there in the emptiness of the abandoned program. Then, Picard wasn’t alone as he was joined by a entity with youth by his side placing a hand on the back rest of the chair. </p><p>“Come, mon capitaine.” Q said. “You have done exactly as you have intended.”</p><p>“I need a little time to myself, Q.” Picard replied. </p><p>“How long?” Q raised a brow. </p><p>“A eternity.” Picard replied as Q lowered his brow. </p><p>Q nodded, grimacing,<em> but it had to be done</em>, then his mood shifted to more than willing. </p><p>“I know a wonderful nebula that you can linger in.” Then Q gestured around the area. “Similar to this ugly and depressing color palate.”</p><p>Picard looked toward the entity then nodded. </p><p>“Make it so, Q.”</p><p>“Take my hand, Jean-Luc.”  Q held his hand out then Picard took it and got up to his feet. “Much better, mon cheri.”</p><p>“Is it in this century, Q?” Picard raised a brow. </p><p>“Yes.” Q confirmed. </p><p>“In this galaxy?” Picard asked. </p><p>“In a far off distant newly born galaxy where you wouldn’t break the prime directive.” Q informed. “Your sulking won’t be interrupted for a<em> long</em> time.”</p><p>“Then take me there, please.”</p><p>Q smiled then he snapped his fingers then they were floating in space.</p><p>“Take all the time that you need, Jean-Luc.” Q patted on Picard’s shoulder. “When you’re ready, I will come for you.”</p><p>“Thank you, Q.” Came out quietly. </p><p>“You’re welcome.” Was the reply then with a snap of his fingers, the entity was gone.</p><p>And Picard mourned for his loss, it was more painful being there. The grief was different compared to the one that he lived with in the land of the living for twenty years. It was different because he had been there to see him <em>die in person</em>. It was different because he got to see Data age and be completely <em>human</em>. And it hurt so much among the heavenly sky.</p><p>The End. </p>
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